Scotland boss is playing it by the book
It used to be said that, if a player was good enough then he was old enough, but it would appear that now what matters is not the year in which he is born but, crucially, the month.
SF A performance director Malky Mackay and his team have been intrigued by a study into the pursuit of excellence and the reasons why some succeed and most do not.
Authored by journalist Daniel Coyle in 2009, it has suggested to Mac kay that birthdays are as important as ball control when it comes to making the grade.
“There’s a book called The Talent Code and we have done a study on that and age maturation,” he said. “We’re looking at the age effect and the size of players when they come through and which birth months produce [most] footballers.
“Funnily enough, it’s Januarys and Septembers that are everywhere – and that needs to change.
“We need to recognise those who have something in them called a‘ rage to master ,’ meaning it doesn’t mat-ter about the sizee of the player, it’ s about re co gn ising the ones who have that thing inside them which means they will come through anyway.
“By hook or by crook, they will become footballers and will keep going. It’s a really interesting topic at the moment because it’ s not the old way of how a scout would look at the biggest and strongest boys and put them in the academies when someone else has the technical abilityy but just needs his body to grow.
“There is a young boy att Rangers ca all ed Na thann Pat er son, right-back ho, for the last couple of years, has been growing into his body. The ability is there but his body wasn’t right.
“His dad is six foot tall and now Nathan is starting to [move towards] that.”
Brian Mclaughlin, the new manager of the S FA’S performance schools, believes that – if he and his colleagues can get it right – then the players who emerge from them could be playing in the top tiers of England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy.
“For Scotland to come back again, we need to have the best youth development programme in Europe,” he said.
“If we do that then the clubs in the top five leagues in Europe will come here and offer substantial money to clubs for them. We’ve changed the way we develop players and we’re now starting to see the first signs of it.”